Unit 4 课文

Unit 4

T1

After twenty years

1 The policeman on the beat moved up the avenue impressively. The impressiveness was habitual and not for show, for spectators were few. The time was barely ten o'clock at night, but chilly gusts of wind with a taste of rain in them had well nigh de-peopled the streets.

2 Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace. The vicinity was one that kept early hours. Now and then you might see the lights of a cigar store or of an all-night lunch counter; but the majority of the doors belonged to business places that had long since been closed.

3 When about midway of a certain block the policeman suddenly slowed his walk. In the doorway of a darkened hardware store a man leaned, with an unlighted cigar in his mouth. As the policeman walked up to him the man spoke up quickly.

4 "It's all right, officer," he said, reassuringly. "I'm just waiting for a friend. It's an appointment made twenty years ago. Sounds a little funny to you, doesn't it? Well, I'll explain if you'd like to make certain it's all straight. About that long ago there used to be a restaurant where this store stands – 'Big Joe' Brady's restaurant."

5 "Until five years ago," said the policeman. "It was torn down then."

6 The man in the doorway struck a match and lit his cigar. The light showed a pale, squarejawed face with keen eyes, and a little white scar near his right eyebrow. His scarfpin was a large diamond, oddly set.

7 "Twenty years ago tonight," said the man, "I dined here at 'Big Joe' Brady's with Jimmy Wells, my best chum, and the finest chap in the world. He and I were raised here in New York, just like two brothers, together. I was eighteen and Jimmy was twenty. The next morning I was to start for the West to make my fortune. You couldn't have dragged Jimmy out of New York; he thought it was the only place on earth. Well, we agreed that night that we would meet here again exactly twenty years from that date and time, no matter what our conditions might be or from what distance we might have to come. We figured that in twenty years each of us ought to have our destiny worked out and our fortunes made, whatever they were going to be."

8 "It sounds pretty interesting," said the policeman. "Rather a long time between meets, though, it seems to me. Haven't you heard from your friend since you left?"

9 "Well, yes, for a time we corresponded," said the other. " But after a year or two we lost track of each other. You see, the West is a pretty big proposition, and I kept hustling around over it pretty lively. But I know Jimmy will meet me here if he's alive, for he always was the truest, staunchest old chap in the world. He'll never forget. I came a thousand miles to stand in this door tonight, and it's worth it if my old partner turns up."

10 The waiting man pulled out a handsome watch, the lids of it set with small diamonds.

11 "Three minutes to ten," he announced. "It was exactly ten o'clock when we parted here at the restaurant door."

12 "Did pretty well out West, didn't you?" asked the policeman.

13 "You bet! I hope Jimmy has done half as well. He was a kind of plodder, though, good fellow as he was. I've had to compete with some of the sharpest wits going to get my pile. A man gets in a groove in New York. It takes the West to put a razor-edge on him. "

14 The policeman twirled his club and took a step or two.

15 "I'll be on my way. Hope your friend comes around all right. Going to call time on him sharp? "

16 "I should say not!" said the other. "I'll give him half an hour at least. If Jimmy is alive on earth he'll be here by that time. So long, officer."

17 "Good night, sir," said the policeman, passing on along his beat, trying doors as he went.

18 There was now a fine, cold drizzle falling, and the wind had risen from its uncertain puffs into a steady blow. The few foot passengers astir in that quarter hurried dismally and silently along with coat collars turned high and pocketed hands. And in the door of the hardware store the man who had come a thousand miles to fill an appointment, uncertain almost to absurdity, with the friend of his youth, smoked his cigar and waited.

19 About twenty minutes he waited, and then a tall man in a long overcoat, with collar turned up to his ears, hurried across from the opposite side of the street. He went directly to the waiting man.

20 "Is that you, Bob?" he asked, doubtfully.

21 "Is that you, Jimmy Wells?" cried the man in the door.

22 "Bless my heart!" exclaimed the new arrival, grasping both the other's hands with his own. "It's Bob, sure as fate. I was certain I'd find you here if you were still in existence. Well, well, well! – twenty years is a long time. The old restaurant's gone, Bob; I wish it had lasted, so we could have had another dinner there. How has the West treated you, old man?"

23 "Buddy; it has given me everything I asked it for. You've changed lots, Jimmy. I never thought you were so tall by two or three inches."

24 "Oh, I grew a bit after I was twenty."

25 "Doing well in New York, Jimmy?"

26 "Moderately. I have a position in one of the city departments. Come on, Bob; we'll go around to a place I know of, and have a good long talk about old times."

27 The two men started up the street, arm in arm. The man from the West, his egotism enlarged by success, was beginning to outline the history of his career. The other, submerged in his overcoat, listened with interest.

28 At the corner stood a drug store, brilliant with electric lights. When they came into this glare each of them turned simultaneously to gaze upon the other's face.

29 The man from the West stopped suddenly and released his arm.

30 "You're not Jimmy Wells," he snapped. "Twenty years is a long time, but not long enough to change a man's nose from a Roman to a pug ."

31 "It sometimes changes a good man into a bad one," said the tall man. "You've been under arrest for ten minutes, 'Silky' Bob. Chicago thinks you may have dropped over our way and wires us she wants to have a chat with you. Going quietly, are you? That's sensible. Now, before we go on to the station here's a note I was asked to hand you. You may read it here at the window. It's from Patrolman Wells."

32 The man from the West unfolded the little piece of paper handed him. His hand was steady when he began to read, but it trembled a little by the time he had finished. The note was rather short.

33 Bob: I was at the appointed place on time. When you struck the match to light your cigar I saw it was the face of the man wanted in Chicago. Somehow I couldn't do it myself, so I went around and got a plain-clothes man to do the job.

JIMMY

二十年后 

1 正在巡逻的警察沿街而行，神态威严。威严的神态是习惯性的而不是给别人看的，因为也没几个人在看。时间将近夜里十点钟，但是，夹带着一丝雨意的阵阵寒风已使街道近乎空无一人了。

2 警官边走边推门，看看沿街的店门关好了没有。他以错综复杂的精妙动作熟练地摆弄着警棍，时不时转身把警觉的目光投向安静的街道，他健壮的身形和微微大摇大摆的样子形成一幅和平守护者的美妙图像。这一带街区的人是习惯早睡早起的。时不时能看到一家雪茄店或一间通宵营业的便餐馆还亮着灯；但大多数商铺都早已关门了。

3 走到某一街区的中段时，警察突然放慢了脚步。在一家黑了灯的五金店门口倚着一个男人，嘴里叼着一根没点着的雪茄。警察一走上前去，那人急忙开了腔。

4 “没事儿，警官，”他说这话好叫警官放心。“我只是在等朋友。这是二十年前定的约会。听起来您觉得有点儿滑稽，对吧？呃，如果您想弄清楚这是不是实话，我可以解释。大约二十年前，这家店所在之处原是个餐馆——‘大乔’布拉迪餐馆。”

5 “直到五年前，”警察说。“五年前被拆了。”

6 门口那人划了一根火柴点燃雪茄。火光照出一张苍白、方下巴、长着一双锐利眼睛的脸，右眉边上有一处微小的白色疤痕。他的别针是一块大钻石，镶嵌的方式很奇特。

7 “二十年前的今晚，”那人说，“我在‘大乔’布拉迪这里和我最好的哥们儿、世上最棒的伙计吉米•威尔斯一起吃饭。我和他在纽约这块儿一起长大，就像哥儿俩。我当时十八岁，吉米二十岁。第二天早上我就要动身去西部发财了。你没法儿把吉米拽出纽约；他以为这是地球上唯一的一块地儿。呃，那天晚上我们约定，我们将在二十年后的同一天、同一时间在这里再见面，无论我们混成什么样子，或者得从多远的地方来。我们估计二十年后，我们应该都已经知道了自己的命运，发了财。至于是好是坏都无所谓了。”

8 “听起来很有趣，”警察说。“不过在我看来，两次会面之间隔了相当长一段时间。自从离开后，你没有听到过你朋友的消息吗？”

9 “呃，有的，我们通过一段时间的信，”那人说。“可是一两年后，我们彼此就失去了联系。你知道，西部的生意相当大，我一直忙得团团转。但我知道如果吉米还活着，他一定会到这儿来见我的，因为他始终是这世界上最忠实、最可靠的老伙计。他绝不会忘的。今晚我从千里之外赶到这个地方，如果我的老伙伴露面的话，一切都值得了。”

10 那个等候的人掏出一只漂亮的怀表，表盖上镶嵌着小钻石。

11 “差三分钟十点，”他宣布。“我们是十点整在这餐馆门口分手的。”

12 “你在西部混得相当不错，对吧？”警察问道。

13 “当然啦！我希望吉米混得有我一半儿好。他是那种闷头苦干的人，不过是个好人。我可得跟一帮打我钱财主意的最精明的人竞争。一个人在纽约容易墨守成规。西部则会让他身处险境。”

14 警察转动警棍，又踱了几步。

15 “我得上路了。希望你的朋友能准时到来。如果他没有按时来，你会离开吗？”

16 “我不会离开！”另一位说。“我会至少再给他半个小时。如果吉米还活在世上，到时候他会来的。再见，警官。”

17 “晚安，先生，”警察说着，沿巡逻路线继续前行，边走边推着店门。

18 此时下起了毛毛细雨，寒意袭人，原先若有若无的微风也变成凛冽的寒风。还在街上行走的少数行人也都竖起了大衣领子，将手插进了口袋，阴郁而沉默地匆匆走开了。五金店门口，从千里之外赶来赴约的那个人抽着雪茄等待着，他与少年时代朋友的这场不确定的约会几乎到了荒诞的程度。

19 他等了大约二十分钟，这时一个身穿长大衣，领子竖起到耳朵的高个子男人匆匆从街对面走来。他径直走向正在等待的人。

20 “是你吗，鲍勃？” 他犹疑地问。

21 “是你吗，吉米•威尔斯？” 门口的人大叫。

22 “天哪！”新来的人欢呼起来，紧紧抓住对方的双手。“是鲍勃，确定无疑。只要你还活着，我肯定会在这儿找到你的。好，好，好！——二十年很长。老餐馆没了，鲍勃；我多希望它还在，那样我们就可以在这儿再吃一顿饭了。西部待你怎样，老伙计？”

23 “好极了！它给了我要的一切。你变了很多，吉米。我可没想过你还能再长高两三英寸。”

24 “哦，我二十岁以后又长了一点儿。”

25 “在纽约混得不错，吉米？”

26 “一般。我在市政府部门有个职位。来吧，鲍勃；咱们去一个我知道的地方，好好长谈一番过去的时光。”

27 两人挽着胳膊，沿街走去。来自西部的人，功成名就，信心满满，开始谈论自己的发达史。另一位缩在大衣里，饶有兴趣地听着。

28 街角有一家杂货店，灯火辉煌。他们走到这光亮里时，不约而同地转头打量对方的面孔。

29 西部来的人突然停住，松开了他的胳膊。

30 “你不是吉米•威尔斯，”他厉声说。“二十年是很长，但不足以把一个人的高鼻梁变成塌鼻梁。”

31 “有时候会把一个好人变成坏人，”高个子男人说。“你已经被捕十分钟了，‘滑头’鲍勃。芝加哥警方认为你可能会来我们这里，电报通知我们说她想跟你聊聊。乖乖跟我们走，好吧？这才算聪明。现在，在我们继续往警局走之前，这儿有一张纸条，有人让我交给你。你可以在橱窗这儿读。是巡警威尔斯写的。”

32 来自西部的人打开交给他的纸条。开始时他的手还是稳的，但到读完的时候他的手却在颤抖。纸条很短。

33 鲍勃：我按时到了约定的地点。你划火柴点雪茄的时候，我看到了一张被芝加哥通缉的人的脸。不知怎么的，我自己下不了手，于是我转了一圈，去找了个便衣来干这活儿。

吉米

T2

Stolen identity

1 "Frank never went to pilot school, medical school, law school, … because he's still in high school."

2 That was the strapline of the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, which tells the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), a brilliant young master of deception who at different times impersonated a doctor, a lawyer, and an airplane pilot, forging checks worth more than six million dollars in 26 countries. He became the youngest man to ever make the FBI's most-wanted list for forgery. Hunted and caught in the film by fictional FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), Abagnale later escaped. He eventually became a consultant for the FBI where he focused on white-collar crime.

3 It's a great film, but could it happen in real life? In fact, Catch Me If You Can is based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, whose career as a fraudster lasted about six years before he was caught, who escaped from custody three times (once through an airplane toilet), and who spent a total of six years in prison in France, Sweden and the US. He now runs a consultancy advising the world of business how to avoid fraud. He has raised enough money to pay back all his victims, and is now a multimillionaire.

4 Since 2003, identity theft has become increasingly common. Few people could imagine how important things like taking mail to the post office and not leaving it in the mailbox for pickup, shredding documents instead of throwing them out with the trash, even using a pen costing a couple of bucks, have become to avoid life-changing crimes.

5 More and more people are becoming anonymous victims of identity theft. We spend many hours and dollars trying to recover our name, our credit, our money and our lives. We need to look for different ways to protect ourselves. We can improve our chances of avoiding this crime, but it will never go away.

6 It's not just a list of do's and don'ts, we need to change our mindset. Although online banking is now commonplace, there's a significant group of people in the country – the baby boomers, 15 per cent of the population – who still prefer to use paper. What's more, 30 per cent of cases of fraud occur within this group. A check has all the information about you that an identity thief needs. If you use a ballpoint pen, the ink can be removed with the help of a regular household chemical and the sum of money can be changed. More than 1.2 million bad checks are issued every day, more than 13 per second.

7 Check fraud is big business … and growing by 25 per cent every year. Criminals count on our mistakes to make their jobs easier. So how can we prevent identity theft before it happens to us?

8 Take a few precautions. Don't leave your mail in your mailbox overnight or over the weekend. Thieves wait for the red flag to go up, so they can look through your outgoing mail for useful personal information or checks. Use a gel pen for checks and important forms; the ink is trapped in the fibre of the paper, and it can't be removed with chemicals. Also, shred or tear up all documents which contain personal information before you put them in the trash.

9 Remember that there are plenty of online opportunities for thieves to create a false identity based on your own. We're all aware of the risks to personal information on computer databases by hacking and Trojan horses . But choosing someone and doing a Google search can also yield large amounts of personal information, and so can online social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo. And just as we take our pocketbook with us when we leave the office to go to the bathroom, it's also worth logging off your computer to avoid opportunistic theft.

10 Finally, if you get robbed in a more traditional way – in the street – canceling your credit cards is obviously the first thing to do. But don't forget that even after they're reported lost, they can be used as identification to acquire store cards … and you get the criminal record.

11 Identity fraud can go on for years without the victim's knowledge. There is no escaping the fact that right now fraudsters are finding identity crime all too easy. If you haven't had your identity stolen, it's only because they haven't got to you yet. Your turn will come.

窃取的身份

1 “弗兰克从未上过飞行学院、医学院、法学院……因为他还在上高中。”

2 这是2002年的电影《有种来抓我》的标语。影片讲述了小弗兰克•阿巴格纳尔（列奥纳多•迪卡普里奥饰演）的故事。影片主人公是一位聪明绝顶的年轻骗术大师，曾在不同时间扮演医生、律师和飞行员的角色，在26个国家伪造了价值600万美元以上的支票。他成了联邦调查局有史以来伪造罪头号通缉令名单上最年轻的通缉犯。在影片中，阿巴格纳尔被虚构的联邦调查局特工卡尔•汉拉提（汤姆•汉克斯饰演）追捕，但后来逃脱了。他最终成了联邦调查局专攻白领犯罪的顾问。

3 《有种来抓我》是一部很棒的电影，但影片中的事情会在现实生活中发生吗？其实，《有种来抓我》是根据弗兰克•阿巴格纳尔的真实故事改编的，他的行骗生涯持续了大约六年；被抓后，曾三次逃脱拘押（有一次是从飞机的厕所逃走的）；在法国、瑞典和美国的监狱中总共度过了六年时光。他现在经营一家咨询事务所，为企业界提供防造假咨询。他挣到了足够的钱，赔付了所有的受害者，如今已是大富豪。

4 2003年以来，身份盗窃案变得越来越常见。很少有人会想到，为了预防这种足以改变人生的犯罪，采取一些预防措施有多么重要，比如把邮件拿到邮局去寄而不是丢在信箱里等人来取、把文件切碎而不是直接把它们连同垃圾一道扔掉，甚至使用几美元一支的（特效）笔等等。

5 越来越多的人正在成为身份盗窃案的无名受害者。我们花费许多时间和金钱，去努力挽回我们的姓名、我们的信用、我们的金钱和我们的生活。我们需要想方设法来保护自己。我们可以减少此类犯罪的机会，但是它永远不会消失。

6 这不仅仅是列一份“该做”和“不该做”事项的清单可以解决的，我们还需要改变心态。虽然网上银行现在很常见，但国内有一大群人——即占人口15％的生育高峰时期出生的一代人——还是更喜欢用纸。而且，30％的诈骗案都发生在这群人当中。支票上有身份盗贼所需的你的全部信息。如果你用圆珠笔，笔迹可以用一般的家用化学药品除去，钱数可以更改。每天发出的空头支票高达120万张以上，平均每秒13张以上。

7 支票造假是个大产业……每年以25％的速率增长。犯罪分子指望我们犯错误，好让他们更容易得手。那么我们怎样才能防患于未然呢？

8 采取一些预防措施。不要把你的邮件留在邮箱里过夜或过周末。小偷就等着看你家信箱的小红旗（注：在美国，信箱上插上小红旗表示有邮件需要投递），以便通过你要投递的邮件找寻有用的个人信息或支票。要用签字笔填写支票和重要表格，（因为）签字笔的墨水会渗进纸张的纤维中，无法用化学药品除去。还有，切碎或撕碎含有个人信息的所有文件，然后再把它们丢进垃圾桶。

9 记住，网上有大量机会可以被小偷利用。他们根据你的身份伪造假身份。我们都知道黑客行为和木马软件对电脑数据库中个人信息的威胁。但是在谷歌上搜索某人也会透露大量个人信息，在线社交网站（如“脸书”和“毕波”）也一样。正如我们离开办公室去厕所时要随身带上钱包一样，离开电脑时也应该注销，以防临时起意的盗窃。

10 最后一点，假如你遭遇较传统方式的抢劫——比如在大街上——挂失你的信用卡显然是要做的第一件事。但是别忘了，即使挂失了，信用卡也可以用作身份证件来获得购物卡……那你就有了犯罪记录。

11 身份伪造可以肆行多年而不为受害者所知。一个无法回避的事实是：现在的诈骗者觉得身份犯罪简直是太容易了。如果你的身份尚未失窃，那只是因为他们还没有对你动手。就会轮到你的。

T3

US Supreme Court declares file-sharing illegal

1 "Why should I spend all my money on expensive music, when I can download it for nothing?" asks Jack Sparrow from Innsbruck, Austria. It's true that file-sharing is an easy way to build up your collection. You simply log on to a website like The Pirate Bay and search for the tracks you want and download them for free. Unfortunately, file-sharing, although cheap and easy, is illegal, as 12-year-old Brianna LaHara found out the hard way. Brianna copied hundreds of songs and TV themes from the net. Her mum had to pay a fine of over $1,000. Another file-sharer, Jammie Thomas, of Minnesota, US, was fined $222,000 for sharing 24 tracks.

2 It's important to realize that when you buy a CD the artists receive a percentage of the price you pay. So if you don't pay for the music, the artists and the companies don't earn any money. The music industry argues that if people can get free downloads, they won't buy CDs. This means that the companies won't have money to invest in creating new music. For this reason, they see downloading as a major threat.

3 Surprisingly, not all artists are against file-sharing. Ben from Norwich, UK, is in a band, and like many new bands, Ben and his friends find it hard to get their music played on the radio or to get their CDs into shops. Ben says that the Internet "gives millions of people the chance to download the tracks". By giving people a chance to hear a sample for free, bands hope they will eventually sell more CDs. So it's not clear that file-sharing reduces sales of CDs.

4 It's worth noting that although music companies have taken people to court for file-sharing, they have also got a lot of bad publicity. Significantly, file-sharers are mainly young people, and it doesn't look good for big business to prosecute teenagers. In addition, most Americans think file-sharing is acceptable, and they don't think it should be illegal. It seems that the industry will have to make legal downloading or buying CDs more attractive than file-sharing. As one music fan from London, UK says, "They had better have a lot of lawyers if they're going to sue all of us."

美国最高法院宣布文档共享不合法

1 “既然可以免费下载，为什么我还要花那么多钱去买昂贵的音乐呢？”奥地利因斯布鲁克的杰克•斯皮洛说。的确，文档共享是一种扩大收藏的捷径。你只需登录到一个像“海盗湾”这样的网站，搜索你想要的音乐，再免费下载就行了。不幸的是，文档共享尽管廉价而便利，却是违法的，12岁的布里安娜•拉哈拉就是吃了亏才明白这个道理的。布里安娜从网上复制了数百首歌曲和电视主题曲。她妈妈不得不为此支付了一千多美元的罚款。另一位文档共享者，美国明尼苏达州的杰米•托马斯，因为下载了24首歌曲而被罚款 222,000美元。

2 当你购买一张音乐光碟时，艺术家会得到购碟款的一部分，认识到这一点是很重要的。所以，要是你不为音乐付钱，艺术家和公司就挣不到钱。音乐产业认为，要是能免费下载的话，人们就不会购买光碟了。这就意味着公司没有钱投资创作新的音乐。因此，他们视下载为主要的威胁。

3 令人吃惊的是，并非所有的艺术家都反对文档共享。来自英国诺里奇的本是一个乐队的成员。像所有新乐队一样，本和他的朋友们发现让他们的音乐在电台播放或把他们的光碟放到店里去卖是件很难的事情。本说，互联网“给数百万人提供了下载音乐的机会”。通过给人们一个免费试听的机会，乐队希望他们最终能卖出更多的光碟。所以，现在还不清楚文档共享是否真的降低光碟的销量。

4 值得注意的是，虽然音乐公司以文档共享的罪名把人们告上了法庭，但是他们也落下了许多坏名声。重要的是，文档共享者主要是年轻人；大企业起诉十几岁的少年有失体面。而且，多数美国人认为文档共享是可以接受的；他们并不认为那是违法的。看起来，音乐产业必须要么使下载合法化，要么使购买光碟比文档共享更有吸引力。正如英国伦敦的一位乐迷所说：“他们要想起诉我们所有人的话，最好聘请一大帮律师。”